[D’Amico] Recently sat down with Cayden Lindstrom to get his feel on how his game is evolving, his current health status and what he thinks about the possibility of playing for the Habs
April 24, 2024
[D’Amico] Recently sat down with Cayden Lindstrom to get his feel on how his game is evolving, his current health status and what he thinks about the possibility of playing for the Habs
5 comments
>“When the game is on the line and you need a big goal, I want to be on the ice to help make it happen,” said Lindstrom regarding the pressure of winning in a passionate market.
On one hand, he’s obviously not going to say “Fuck Montreal, I want to play in a low pressure market. Columbus please!”, so you have to take a comment like that with a grain of salt. On the other, I think I recall Slafkovský saying what he likes most is playing in 2-1 games (needing a goal or protecting a lead late in the game), i.e. when the game is on the line. If true, that’s obviously a plus.
But of course, all of this is moot because Lindstrom is probably going third or fourth, possibly even second overall.
I want a dman or 2 to go ahead of us and us to end up with one of dimidov or lindstrom.
I would also love for tij to go to the u18s and just kill it and become a legit top 5 choice. He is such a good prospect.
Aside from Celebrini, this is the guy I think I’ve settled on. He’s got that rare mix of size, skill, and skating – a proverbial unicorn like Slafkovsky.
I did have concerns about his hockey IQ and overall offensive upside, but after watching him a lot more, those concerns have been attenuated, and I think he’s actually a really smart player and he’s got a lot more upside in that area than is readily apparent.
I think he was playing the role he was given as the power forward/finisher/goal scorer on the team, but there were many times where he set up great plays on the level of other elite playmakers. He’s only scratched the surface of his potential in that area.
His compete level is great, both in the offensive zone with driving the net and getting onto the dirty areas to set up or finish plays, and in the defensive zone battling for pucks. He’s also aggressive and tenacious man to man. He’s great in transition and in the neutral zone rushing the puck through and great at zone entries thanks to top notch puck handling and puck protection skills. He can weave through heavy traffic and dirty areas with the puck and thrives in that regard – he doesn’t require much time and space at all, and can operate at high speed while his feet are moving. The old “handling the puck in a phone booth” phrase comes to mind.
His skating and overall speed is great and compliments the aforementioned skills and attributes with quick turns, feints, dekes. Despite his size, you could describe him as a slippery/shifty player too, especially off the rush/through the neutral zone. His offensive game isn’t limited to bulling through contact towards the net, but he excels at that too. From my eyes, he was the line driver a lot of the time despite Basha often being the set up man.
Of course, there are still some concerns like with any prospect; the injuries, the missed development time, to what degree some of his attributes will translate to the faster game of the NHL and the less time and space he’ll have. His decision-making can also appear questionable at times and he sometimes looked like he’d get tunnel vision rushing into the offensive zone and his overall strategy there, but like I said, that could be coaching/the role he was given. He could stand to utilize his entire repertoire more to be more varied in his approach; it would make him even more dangerous.
I think he’s capable of much more than we’ve seen. He’s also a true centerman, unlike say, Catton, who might end up being a winger at the next level. His skillset and strengths are well suited to play center at the next level and his physical/power game make him unique.
Love what I have seen out of Lindstrom but if we are in the fortunate case of choosing between demidov or lindstrom I am going with demidov every time. Demidov’s skill is insane.
Say demidov and lindstrom are gone I go with Catton hands down and if we still have our later round pick and Eiserman is still on the board I pick him.
Catton a natural skillful playmaker with Eiserman a sniper pure scorer I would be very happy as well.
5 comments
>“When the game is on the line and you need a big goal, I want to be on the ice to help make it happen,” said Lindstrom regarding the pressure of winning in a passionate market.
On one hand, he’s obviously not going to say “Fuck Montreal, I want to play in a low pressure market. Columbus please!”, so you have to take a comment like that with a grain of salt. On the other, I think I recall Slafkovský saying what he likes most is playing in 2-1 games (needing a goal or protecting a lead late in the game), i.e. when the game is on the line. If true, that’s obviously a plus.
But of course, all of this is moot because Lindstrom is probably going third or fourth, possibly even second overall.
I want a dman or 2 to go ahead of us and us to end up with one of dimidov or lindstrom.
I would also love for tij to go to the u18s and just kill it and become a legit top 5 choice. He is such a good prospect.
Aside from Celebrini, this is the guy I think I’ve settled on. He’s got that rare mix of size, skill, and skating – a proverbial unicorn like Slafkovsky.
I did have concerns about his hockey IQ and overall offensive upside, but after watching him a lot more, those concerns have been attenuated, and I think he’s actually a really smart player and he’s got a lot more upside in that area than is readily apparent.
I think he was playing the role he was given as the power forward/finisher/goal scorer on the team, but there were many times where he set up great plays on the level of other elite playmakers. He’s only scratched the surface of his potential in that area.
His compete level is great, both in the offensive zone with driving the net and getting onto the dirty areas to set up or finish plays, and in the defensive zone battling for pucks. He’s also aggressive and tenacious man to man. He’s great in transition and in the neutral zone rushing the puck through and great at zone entries thanks to top notch puck handling and puck protection skills. He can weave through heavy traffic and dirty areas with the puck and thrives in that regard – he doesn’t require much time and space at all, and can operate at high speed while his feet are moving. The old “handling the puck in a phone booth” phrase comes to mind.
His skating and overall speed is great and compliments the aforementioned skills and attributes with quick turns, feints, dekes. Despite his size, you could describe him as a slippery/shifty player too, especially off the rush/through the neutral zone. His offensive game isn’t limited to bulling through contact towards the net, but he excels at that too. From my eyes, he was the line driver a lot of the time despite Basha often being the set up man.
Of course, there are still some concerns like with any prospect; the injuries, the missed development time, to what degree some of his attributes will translate to the faster game of the NHL and the less time and space he’ll have. His decision-making can also appear questionable at times and he sometimes looked like he’d get tunnel vision rushing into the offensive zone and his overall strategy there, but like I said, that could be coaching/the role he was given. He could stand to utilize his entire repertoire more to be more varied in his approach; it would make him even more dangerous.
I think he’s capable of much more than we’ve seen. He’s also a true centerman, unlike say, Catton, who might end up being a winger at the next level. His skillset and strengths are well suited to play center at the next level and his physical/power game make him unique.
Love what I have seen out of Lindstrom but if we are in the fortunate case of choosing between demidov or lindstrom I am going with demidov every time. Demidov’s skill is insane.
Say demidov and lindstrom are gone I go with Catton hands down and if we still have our later round pick and Eiserman is still on the board I pick him.
Catton a natural skillful playmaker with Eiserman a sniper pure scorer I would be very happy as well.
Inject this straight into my veins